Star Trek Timelines Wiki:Yesterday Evening News/The Arsenal of Freedom

I’ve always been the sort of person who skims over an article, preferring to read people’s thoughts and reactions down in the comments section below. Seeing people’s thought processes and thinking about differing points of view can be fascinating, and luckily Star Trek provides no end of topics to debate over.

A few rearranged plans this past weekend meant I’ve been lucky enough to find a couple of free hours to indulge myself in this guilty pleasure. Jumping into the proverbial rabbit hole, I’ve dived deep into the archives of The Trek BBS foums, TrekCore comment section and Daystrom Institute comments section, reading views on everything from the introduction of Klingon head ridges to the placement of phaser banks on Constitution class starships.

It is in part this which has led to me launching this new section of the Star Trek Timelines wiki. Wiki style sites are, generally, a place for facts and impartiality. A place to find out what things are, not what an author thinks about them. And in some respects this is a shame. The Star Trek community is one of the most passionate out there, and as I’ve seen over the past weekend this passion can lead to the formation of interesting opinions, debates and theories – all of which is fascinating to read, but doesn’t really have a place within a wiki article.

Therefore, I am happy to be launching the Yesterday Evening News, the blog and newsletter of the Star Trek Timelines Wiki. This new section of the site will provide a home for more subjective content relating to the game including reviews of recent updates, interviews with fleet leaders and YouTubers, fanfiction and lots more. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed from my recent voyages through the Trek messageboards it’s that there are countless opinions about what Star Trek actually is. After all, Star Trek has been horror, psychological thriller, space opera, comedy, military science fiction and more of the course of it’s 50 year life. Some argue that the only ‘true’ Star Trek is that which upholds Gene Rodenberry’s vision of a utopian society powered by personal betterment and mutual cooperation. Yet it is conflict and strife that is the cornerstone of popular episodes like The Next Generation’s The Best of Both Worlds, and indeed much of Deep Space Nine. Others contend that it is the series’ more thoughtful nature, promoting dialogue over mindless action. Yet the resounding success of the Wrath of Khan for example shows that Star Trek can be action oriented, and do so well.

The show has had six series and 10 films created over a period of 50 years. In some ways it has remained surprisingly consistent, yet in others even the prime canon universe has become a vast, convoluted and constantly shifting beast. For a Star Trek game to be truly great therefore, I think it needs to let the player choose which style of Star Trek they want to play.

Star Trek Timelines serves up the good type of freedom.

The past half century has seen a plethora of Star Trek games released - many not very good. Star Trek: Elite Force is a solid FPS, Star Trek: Encounters a serviceable twin stick shooter, but neither catches the feel of Star Trek. Players are restricted to predefined scenarios and playstyles, with little chance to decide the course of events. Many Star Trek games aren’t pool because they contained shooting. The issue is that they contain only shooting.

The beauty of Star Trek Timelines is that it offers freedom. There is the basic ability to choose your favourite ship and assemble a crew of your favourite characters. But I think more important than this is the ability to choose between factions and complete missions how you want to through branching storyline style gameplay. It feels like a breath of fresh air. Want to engage in some good old fashioned hand to hand combat? That’s fine. Rather negotiate your way out of the sticky situation? Well that’s a valid option too. When it comes down to it, creating an authentic Star Trek game comes down to choices. Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, each have their own personalities and would react to situations in different ways. And, were I sat in the captain’s chair, I think I would too.

Of course being a videogame many will be more concerned with progression and advancing through the storyline rather than fully immersing themselves in it, and that’s fine. But I can only hope that Disruptor Beam continue in their efforts to keep the game well balanced, continuing to allow players to be successful using a variety of different crew, ships and storyline choices, rather than allowing an overly restrictive metagame to emerge where players are forced down a certain route if they want to do well.

Now unfortunately I must get going to save the people of Omicron Theta from a damaged Borg Cube. Do you have any thoughts on choices in Star Trek Timelines? Then please post them on the discussion page for this article. Like I said, I love to read them. :)